Blades of Vengeance
by JosieRose
Summary: Strange how all of his good friends seem to come from a circus. Wally visits a circus with a friend and meets a knife juggler with a unique past and the two team up to solve the mystery of the juggler's missing friends and foster family.


**Chapter One**

"Hey, Wally, I'll race you to the park!" Wally smirked at his friend.

"Dude, you know I'll win anyway."

Jonny Thoms didn't seem to mind. "Yah, maybe. But you never know." With that, Jonny took off running in the direction of the Central City Park. Wally West threw his head back and laughed out loud before taking off after his friend at a pace that wasn't even close to a jog for this redheaded speedster.

Today at the Central City Park, there was supposed to be a small circus set up for a few days. Wally had contacted his best friend, Robin Batclanus, but he was kicking it with his dad today, literally. Wally stood and looked around at the tents and game booths and everything. "Man," he thought to himself. "Dick would have loved this. Too bad the Bats had other plans."

Wally's mouth watered at the smells of popcorn and funnel cake wafting from the various vendors around the circus. But he didn't really have time for eating right now, his friends were already piling into one of the tents where a show was about to begin.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and Girls! Children of all ages! Now performing before your very eyes, the one, the only, the magnificent Boy of Blades!" The crowd began to applaud as the spotlight lit up a corner of the tent where a boy dressed in what looked like a black and red ninja's costumes stood. "This is the 'Boy of Blades' first performance as part of the Paiges' Circus. He has come to us all the way from the far country of Mongolia…" As the ringmaster continued to bellow praises for this ninja boy, the Boy of Blades came forward to an illuminated table containing several different sizes and shapes of knives.

Jonny leaned over and whispered to Wally confidentially, "I wonder how he got all of those on his plane from Mongolia." They both chuckled and settled down in their seats to watch the show.

Zeton Soteris gazed at the crowed packed inside the tent from behind the hood of his outfit. He had done a lot to manage a spot in an American circus, and he wasn't going to blow his plans on the first night.

He stepped up to the table and took a hold of a set of three identical daggers. The blade of each was about six inches long, and the hilt of each had one small jewel embedded just below the blade. He spread them out in his hand so that the audience could see all three blades glinting in the spot light. The drums began to sound, and that was his cue. He threw one of the daggers in the air, drawing a collective gasp from the crowd, and began to juggle the knives.

To Wally, sitting in suspense watching this teenager, every toss of a knife seemed a deadly trick to play. The knives would spin upwards towards the tent roof, and then plummet back downwards, twisting and turning as they caught the light. Every time the knives came down, Wally was sure that this time it would hit the boy, but just at the last moment, the Boy of Blades would snatch the knife out of the air and send it soaring back up into the lights of the tent once more. Not a one touched the ground, and none ever landed any way except for how the boy intended them to. "Wow, he's really somethin'," Wally thought.

As all eyes watched him, Zeton saw his partner come up to the table. Mariel had her own act already, but when he had joined the circus, she had been drafted to aid him in his show. And what a partner she was. The crowed sat in awe on the benches as Mariel stepped up to the table and dropped her cloak, revealing a very healthy figure shown off by a costume that looked like a one piece bathing suit covered in silver and blue sequins. There came another gasp from the crowd, and the drums began to beat faster. Mariel picked up another blade, this one a koga-katana.

Zeton smiled under his mask. He knew what was coming. He and Mariel had spent countless hours perfecting this trick, but he didn't really need practice any more than he needed a bullet in his head. He had grown up knowing these weapons, and having a different person throw them was not a problem for him.

Mariel turned to the audience and held up the koga-katana in her hands. Then she turned quickly and threw the blade square at Zeton's chest without so much as batting an eyelash.

Wally was on his feet and in the isle in seconds flat. But the juggler was still going, this time with a fourth blade threatening his life every time he let it leap above his head. Wally released a sigh of relief. Apparently, no one else in his row had noticed his sudden movements. He managed to pick his way down the benches and found a seat much closer to the center ring where the Boy of Blades was still testing fate with every flick of his wrist.

By the end of his thirty minute act, Zeton had wowed the audience with the juggling of six knives, all of which had ended up imbedded in a plank surrounding Mariel's body at the opposite end of the tent. When Zeton took Mariel's hand and bowed to the audience, the cheering and the applause was tremendous. He smiled from behind his mask. If he had not already had a mission laid out before him, he might have liked to stay and continue on with the Paiges' Circus. But he had a vow to uphold, and lives to avenge.


End file.
